An archive of articles and listserve postings of interest, mostly posted without commentary, linked to commentary at the Education Notes Online blog. Note that I do not endorse the points of views of all articles, but post them for reference purposes.

Monday, October 22, 2012

● THIS CONTRACT IS INHUMANE! IT THREATENS THE HEALTH AND FAMILIES OF NEWARK
EDUCATION WORKERS!

● THIS CONTRACT SLASHES TEACHERS SALARIES AND BENEFITS!

● THIS CONTRACT DESTROYS OUR UNION! At every turn it destroys our ability to defend and protect
our members!

● THIS CONTRACT PITS TEACHER AGAINST TEACHER! It destroys union and working class
solidarity!

● More Turnaround schools! More charter schools! TEACHERS WILL BE ROBBED OF JOBS! Larger
class sizes!

● DICTATORIAL SUPERINTENDENT CONTROL OVER NEW EVALUATION SYSTEM!

● LOSS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN RETROACTIVE PAY! No guarantee WHEN we get it!

● LOWER SALARIES OVER TIME for those who choose OR are FORCED into Merit Pay!

● LOWER SALARIES for ALL employees, EVEN THOSE WHO STAY ON TRADITIONAL SCALE!

● Few teachers will be rated Highly Effective! FEW TEACHERS WILL ACTUALLY GET BONUSES!

● The philanthropic money for merit pay can disappear, as it did in Washington DC, leaving NPS without
money to pay bonuses!

● LONGER PERMANENT HOURS, FOR NO ADDITIONAL PAY!
THIS IS A CUT-THROAT BUSINESS CONTRACT, NOT A SOCIAL JUSTICE CONTRACT.

● IT ENSURES THE PRIVATIZATION OF NEWARK SCHOOLS WITHIN 5 YEARS

● IT MEANS INDENTURED SERVITUDE FOR EDUCATION WORKERS

● IT DOES NOT PROVIDE STUDENTS WITH ANYTHING THEY DESERVE IN SCHOOL
SOLUTION = VOTE NO TO MOVE TO ARBITRATION

● DEMAND THE FORMATION OF A RANK-AND-FILE CONTRACT COMMITTEE

● ENABLES WILLING AND ABLE NTU MEMBERS TO WORK WITH LEADERSHIP TO
PREPARE A COUNTER, SOCIAL JUSTICE-BASED CONTRACT

● NEED EQUAL RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS, SMALL CLASS SIZE GUARANTEE,
INCREASED LEARNING SUPPORTS, BALANCE OF POWER IN EVALUATION PROCESS,
REDUCTION IN PAPER WORK FOR TEACHERS, ANTI-BULLYING PROVISION, HIRING
POOL, FAIR COMPENSATION, A STRICT TIMETABLE FOR FUTURE NEGOTIATIONS SO
WE NEVER GO TWO PLUS YEARS WITHOUT A CONTRACT

CONTRACT ANALYSIS
TEACHERS COACHING AND EVALUATION:

While the descriptions of the Peer Oversight Committee and School Improvement Panel and Peer
Validators seem to offer a modicum of protection for teachers from administrative abuse, both the Oversight
Committee and School Improvement Panel are “ultimately” under the control of the Superintendent. In Part 1B,
number 5, the language is clear: “The Superintendent will retain ultimate authority over the selection criteria, and
management of Peer Validators.” In Part 1D, the language is even clearer: “The principal and his/her
administrative team – with support from the Superintendent’s team – are ultimately and solely responsible for the
decisions, content and quality of teachers evaluations. Nothing described in Section 1A, 1B, or 1C of this MOA
shall be interpreted as challenging this premise.” In others words, both the Peer Oversight Committee and the
School Improvement Panel are completely and unquestionably under the control of the Superintendent.
Beyond that, even the Peer Validator system is weak. It only includes 1 Peer Validator, rather than a
committee. Further, the “Peer” Validator does not even need to be a peer. This leaves even that process open to
corruption or manipulation. Part 1, section C2, it is clear that Peer Validators do not even need to be your peers.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:Retroactive Pay is, in general, about 1/3 of what you are actually owed. IN NO CASE IS RETROACTIVE
PAY THE ACTUAL AMOUNT YOU HAVE LOST OVER THE PAST 2 PLUS YEARS!
If you have a Bachelor’s Degree only, YOU HAVE NO CHOICE in what salary scale you must accept.
Young teachers with a Bachelor’s Degree and ALL new teachers for years or decades into the future will be on the
Merit Pay scale.
This contract discourages teachers from furthering their education by pursuing graduate degrees. There is
NO incentive for teachers to become experts in their field, which helps us know our content better and become
better teachers.
Further, teachers on the Merit Pay scale are slightly higher than those on the Regular scale. However,
within a few short years that changes. For any conceivable position, after a few short years the pay of those who
choose to stay on the Regular Scale will be earning MORE per year than those who choose or are forced into the
Merit Pay scale.
This effectively creates a two-tiered contract which will split the NTU membership into two distinct
interest groups – Merit Pay and Regular groups – WHO WILL IN THE FUTURE HAVE DISTINCTLY
DIFFERENT INTERESTS WHEN NEGOTIATING FUTURE CONTRACTS! This will make it impossible for
our union membership to stand in solidarity in future negotiations, dividing us so that we can never unify again.
This has happened in private industry for the past twenty years. In the book
Now it’s being applied to educators!
To get teachers to buy into their Merit Pay system, they propose a bribe. The tentative agreement labels it
a “Transition Stipend,” but in reality, that stipend is a bribe, designed to hook teachers into a system that will pay
them less over time, and DOES NOT GUARANTEE THEM MERIT PAY OR BONUSES.
If you get an effective on your evaluation, you get your increment, but you only get Merit Pay if you get
Highly Effective. In other words, you do not get Merit Pay simply for being Effective. YOU ONLY GET MERIT
PAY IF YOU ARE RATED HIGHLY EFFECTIVE.

Harrison, Bennett and Bluestone, The

Great U-Turn: Corporate Restructuring and the Polarizing of America, they demonstrate how this method is used

to PERMANENTLY lower wages for an entire industry.

In Part 2B, number 2C, it specifies that a $2,500 reward will be available only to those teaching in a “hard-
staff-subjects.” In other words, if you do not teach in a hard-to-staff-subject--a vague term that is unspecified--you
WILL NEVER have the opportunity to earn this reward.
Further, we must look at the funding sources for these “rewards,” “bonuses,” and “awards.” All the money
comes from a $20 million per year (about $50 million over the course of the contract) fund taken from
“philanthropic funds.” Laughably, Part 2B, section 4, begins with the following: “In the unlikely event that
philanthropic funds are not available...” [emphasis ours]. Even without a concrete example of such an “unlikely
event,” we can all imagine Marc Zuckerberg becoming fickle, or not liking the way his money is being used, and
choosing a new charity for his riches in future years. But we need not imagine anything. In Washington, D.C., the
teachers union agreed to merit pay funded by “philanthropic funds,” only to find that philanthropic funding fell by
82% (from an average of $21 million between 2010 to 2012 to $3.8 million after Michelle Rhee left the district).
Then, D.C. was stuck holding the bag with no money to pay these bonuses. In essence, merit pay is really never
pay.
None of these “bonuses” are pensionable, because they are not considered salary. “Awards” and “rewards”
and “stipends” are also not salary, and therefore are also not pensionable.
If you do not give sufficient notice for retirement, you will lose your sick days. You will literally be
punished for not putting in your retirement notice early enough.
Even the one area of the contract that seems to sound good, the “sick bank,” is not clearly delineated, and
could therefore be administered in an unfair fashion. Who or what will run this “bank”? What criteria will be used
to determine how sick days get used? None of this is specified at all.
In Part 2B, number 2D, union-sponsored courses are specifically NOT approved for credit equivalency for
increment advancement. This delegitimizes the NTU as a professional organization.
In Part 2F, number 3, super-seniority for NTU officials is specifically eliminated. In other words, the NTU
is giving up protections for their officials and employees who still work in a school. Again, another step toward
the delegitimization of the Newark Teachers Union.
In Part 2F, number 3, the wording that previously guaranteed that we could not be forced to work more
than 6 hours and 30 minutes is deleted. With no wording protecting us, we can now be required to work more than
the 6 hours and 30 minutes that has been the case in the past.
Even our Spring Break is under attack. Part 2F, number 4, the wording that has previously guaranteed us
our Spring Break is deleted. Basically, they can, potentially, eliminate our spring break.
For neither of these 2 provisions is there any indication that there will be fair compensation for either those
longer days or loss of spring break. In other words, we are being forced to work longer hours without being fairly
compensated for our labor-power.
If it’s not an “extended day,” added on to an already 6 hour and 30 minute teaching day, then it is a regular,
full teaching day. NPS will attempt to argue that since it’s not an extended day program, employees should not be
given any extra compensation.
There is NO provision in this contract for how to place the “Employees Without Placement” in regular
positions again. In Chicago, the Chicago Teachers Union negotiated a clause in their recently signed contract that
forces the Chicago Public Schools to place those teachers BEFORE HIRING new teachers. Teachers at Renew
schools were similarly unprotected.

Renew Schools are actually encouraged to seek waivers from our contract. This essentially makes renew
school teachers “at-will employees,” a status that non-unionized workers have because they can be removed from
their position more easily if they do not demonstrate uncritical fidelity to their boss.
NPS will designate more Turnaround and “Renew Schools,” which will lead to more loss of placements
and charter schools. Part 5, section C1 identifies the three rationales for “renewing” a school: 1) low enrollment,
2) low standardized test scores, and 3) “growth over time”--a vague standard that most likely refers to the yet-to-
be-defined methods of connecting student test scores to teacher performance. Most problematically, there is open-
ended language in this provision (“...including but not limited to...) that allows for an unending set of reasons for
firing the entire staff of a school.
Not to be outdone, section C2 states explicitly that NPS will designate 10 Turnaround Schools per year (30
total over the course of the contract). This contract makes school closings, consolidations, and “turnarounds”
easier, rather than trying to fight them.

CONCLUSION
While all teachers want to get back on our steps, we need to be clear that we are getting back on our steps
at a price. Not only are we not getting our full retroactive pay, but we are also getting paid less while being forced
to do more, EVEN IF WE STAY ON THE TRADITIONAL PAY SCALE!
Further, while the scale and increments for the Universal (read “merit pay”) Salary Scale are better in the
earlier years, they are significantly lower over time. In other words, you will fall behind the pay of those on the
Traditional Scale after the first few years.
Many of the old methods in the contract worked, or could have worked. But, they were never properly
implemented. Department Chairs and Principals have always had the ability to withhold increments or fire
teachers. Now, because these prerogatives have rarely been implemented effectively by past administrators,
Christie, Cerf and Anderson are AUTOMATICALLY tying our increments and jobs to an unproven, subjective,
and yet-to-finalized evaluation system.
Throughout, the state and district are expanding their control and power over decisions affecting working
and learning, whereas the amount of control and power of the NTU and education workers over those areas is
contracting. There are attempts throughout to delegitimize our union. This is union busting! In numerous places,
in the place of concrete regulations or procedures, committees are set up to “monitor” grievances, procedures, and
the functioning of the evaluation system. These committees could very easily become bogged down in
bureaucratic functioning, as have the current grievance procedures.
NPS has rushed this contract because they wanted NTU ratification in time to make the deadline for Race
to the Top, the very federal law that coerces states with billions of dollars in aid in return for closing schools,
removing entire staffs from struggling schools, opening more charter schools, and increasing the use of
standardized tests.
The rush to complete this is evinced by the many sections which leave open-ended the procedures for
implementing or enforcing a statement made in the contract. In other words, many procedures are simply given
over to the state to be decided upon later!
This is not a social justice contract. This is a cut-throat BUSINESS contract that will bring the forces of
the market to public education. It turns education into a business which does nothing to directly address students
needs. In fact, many of these provisions will ultimately hurt students.

It will hurt students by creating a high turnover rate of teachers in schools. Between the two-tier wage
system (which has proven to cause high turnover), not putting a cap on how many hours a teacher can work, and
an evaluation system that makes sure that teachers are doing what the administration wants them to do, rather than
what is best for these students.
It is also important to note that there is not a single study that shows districts which have merit pay
improved student achievement. Merit pay also assumes that teachers will work harder if they get more money.
This can’t be further from the truth. An overwhelming amount of teachers, in Newark and elsewhere, work hard
everyday to provide a high-quality education for our students. Many even go beyond our work hours to fight for
commonsense, research-based solutions that have been shown to positively impact student development. It is not
the will of the teachers that are the main obstacles to increasing student achievement, but the conditions within
NPS and the city that keep students from reaching their fullest potential. None of these factors are addressed in
this contract.
When the Baltimore Teachers Union was initially faced with a merit pay proposal in 2010, they turned it
down. But after Randi Weingarten and the AFT went there to convince the Baltimore teachers that this was a
good contract, a second vote passed merit pay and the contract provisions. Since then, the number of
unsatisfactory evaluations (ineffective) shot up throughout the city, in some schools as high as 60%. Let’s not
repeat these same errors. Vote no, organize our union, and demand a truly fair contract that works to serve the
interests of all students and education workers in Newark.

The War on Teachers: Pick a Side

Then you have
people making policies who don’t send their kids to public school, and
who didn’t go themselves, and who have some sort of mythical vision in
their brains about what inner-city schools are. I’m sick of other people
thinking that they know what goes on in classrooms who have never been,
as I like to say, on this side of the desk.

In September, as picket lines of teachers in red T-shirts filled
Chicago’s streets, the majority of Chicagoans were cheering on Karen
Lewis, the president of the radically democratic Chicago Teachers Union
(CTU).
Members of the national media, however, were wringing their hands,
worried that children’s education was being imperiled by the entitled
members of a public employee union.

These sentiments were found everywhere, from the pages of The Nation
to the halls of the George W. Bush Institute. On no issue is elite
opinion more united than on the need for education “reform”—at the
expense of teachers and their collective bargaining rights.

A New York Times editorial
damned CTU’s Lewis: “Her conduct during the strike has inflamed union
members and raised expectations, making it difficult to bring them into
line after the negotiating team finished its work.”

On NBC’s Today show,
co-anchor Savannah Guthrie asked President Barack Obama about the
strike. He replied, “I think Governor Romney and a number of folks try
to politicize the issue and do a lot of teacher-bashing.” An incredulous
Guthrie followed up: “Can you really say that teachers unions aren’t
slowing the pace of reform?”

The so-called education reform movement is characterized by a fixation
on school personnel management and a disregard for the fundamental
economic inequalities that result in disparate educational outcomes.
This personnel-focused approach is deeply appealing to
upper-middle-class liberals, who often prefer technocratic solutions
over social democratic programs that fatten the tax base.

The fact is, American public schools in affluent suburbs deliver
high-quality education and have unionized teachers. And Northern
Europe’s social democracies, which deliver the finest primary and
secondary education in the world, boast formidable labor movements.

Of course, while the teachers unions are vilified by both wings of the
political class, teachers remain very popular with parents and voters.
Bruce Rauner, a hedge-fund billionaire and behind-the-scenes education
advisor to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, understands this. As the teachers took to
the picket lines, Rauner was speaking at the Art Institute of Chicago
to a gathering of education experts convened under the auspices of the
George W. Bush Institute. Said Rauner:
“The critical issue is to separate the union from the teachers. …
You’ve got to break apart the union bosses away from the really talented
teachers.” In Rauner’s fantasy, Chicago’s teachers (who overwhelmingly
voted in favor of the strike) can be pried away from the union over the
issue of merit pay—this shows how much hedge-fund managers know about
solidarity.

Democracy in action
On Sunday, September 16, the CTU negotiating team presented the union’s
House of Delegates with the agreement it had reached with the school
board. Instead of voting to end the strike as expected, the 800-plus
delegates voted to take the proposal back to their schools.

The next morning, Lewis was a guest on WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR affiliate,
where a skeptical talk show host asked her why she hadn’t instructed her
members to end their strike. Lewis replied: “The union leadership does
not tell the members what to do. … To me, having those discussions in
the rank and file is so important. … We do take democracy seriously. And
I know that’s frustrating for people, but in the end it is ultimately a
better way to govern a union because it is not top-down leadership.”

After discussing the contract with their fellow teachers, the House of
Delegates voted to end the strike. And on October 2, the members voted
to approve the contract.

The CTU model of bottom-up, rank-and-file unionism is a refreshing
alternative to the timid, bureaucratic labor movement we have known in
this country for so many years.

In These Times Staff Writer Sady Doyle and I spoke with CTU President Karen Lewis. Here is some of what she had to say:

Bleifuss: Where does this idea that teachers are the root of the problem originate?
Lewis: The United States is almost back to the levels of income
inequality and distribution that helped precipitate the Great
Depression. So how do the people who are in charge continue to be in
charge? One of the easiest ways is to start scapegoating the people who
could actually perform the critical analysis of what is going on.
Then you have people making policies who don’t send their kids to
public school, and who didn’t go themselves, and who have some sort of
mythical vision in their brains about what inner-city schools are. I’m
sick of other people thinking that they know what goes on in classrooms
who have never been, as I like to say, on this side of the desk.

Why do people seem to have so much trouble with democracy?
Because nobody knows how to practice it anymore. Most organizations
that are supposed to be democratic aren’t. There is always leadership
control and people’s egos involved. But when people are part of the
process, they feel a whole lot better about how things go. Certainly our
union wasn’t democratic [before the 2010 election of Lewis’ reform
caucus] and that was one of our goals, to change this into a democratic
union that is responsive to its members. I trust our membership,
totally. And when you trust your membership, good things happen.

What lesson could other union leaders learn from the CTU?
Every single union is different. Every local is different. The key is
that people need to decide what they want their union to be, and I’m
talking about members as opposed to leaders. Once members are happy with
the way things are, then, okay.
Every union needs to do some soul searching about what its purpose is.
If the purpose is to simply fight for wages and benefits, then the
current models of unions work.
But the people I know believe that the union should be responsive to
its members. And because we’re teaching in Chicago, we’re going to have
to be responsive to our kids and their families, and to the situations
in their lives. So we need to start working together to figure out how
to solve some of our problems.
Why do hedge-fund billionaires want to demonize teachers? Why do they
want to demonize the parents of the children? And why do they want to
demonize and criminalize the children? This is what scares me.
Everyone is pointing blame in the absolutely wrong directions. That is
why I’m so passionate about fighting corporate education reform. It is
wrong.Do you see teachers as the first line of defense?
Yes, against stupidity.During the strike, many teachers were holding “Karen for Mayor” signs. Are you eyeing a run for office?
No! Absolutely not. How am I going to be a politician? I am bad at it. You’ve seen my YouTube videos.
I had my dream job, but what I saw was people who were trying to destroy that, and I felt like I had to stand up.

Counter

About Me

Norm Scott worked in the NYC school system from 1967 to 2002, spending 30 of those years teaching elementary school in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn (District 14). He retired in July 2002. He has been active in education reform and in the UFT, often as a critic of union policy, since 1970, working with a variety of groups. In 1996 he began publishing Education Notes, a newsletter for teachers attending the UFT Delegate Assembly. In 2002, he expanded the paper into a 16-page tabloid, printing up to 25,000 copies distributed to teacher mailboxes through Ed Notes supporters. Education Notes started publishing a blog in Aug. 2006. Norm also writes the School Scope education column for The Wave, the Rockaway Beach community newspaper.